wfn.org | LWI 2009-015 LWF Youth Pre-Assembly Preparatory Group Defines Goals for Full Participation

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LWF Youth Pre-Assembly Preparatory Group Defines Goals for Full
Participation
A Unique Opportunity for the Lutheran Youth Movement

GENEVA, 25 March 2009 (LWI) - At the invitation of Lutheran
World Federation (LWF) Youth, ten young church representatives
from the LWF regions gathered on 19-24 February at the John Knox
Center in Geneva to lay the groundwork for the 2010 LWF
Pre-Assembly Youth Conference.

The youth conference will take place 11-17 July 2010 in Dresden,
Germany, just days before the LWF Eleventh Assembly. The
Assembly, hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Wuerttemberg, will meet in Stuttgart, Germany, 20-27 July 2010
with the theme "Give Us Today Our Daily Bread."  

The preparatory group from LWF member churches in Africa, Asia,
Europe, Latin and North America explored various options to equip
youth delegates for full participation within the Lutheran
communion and at the forthcoming assembly.

"Preparation implies training on how to raise a motion or to ask
for the floor at a plenary session, but also things like how not
to get lost at an assembly," said Rev. Dr Kjell Nordstokke,
director of the LWF Department for Mission and Development (DMD)
which houses the LWF Youth desk. "There is a good chance that
constitutional changes will be discussed at the Assembly under
the topic of LWF’s renewal. This will have implications for the
future involvement of youth."

The international planning group articulated visions and goals
for the youth pre-assembly, suggesting it should be a "fun" event
that would allow all youth delegates to act as confident
participants during the main assembly. "When youth opinions and
contributions are valued, they [young adults] are enabled to
grow, to become fair and open future leaders. Full youth
participation will enrich the work of the LWF," said Ms Heidrun
Tobler, a theology student from the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Southern Africa.

At its 1990 meeting in Curitiba, Brazil, the LWF Assembly
decided that at least 20 percent of the delegates to future
assemblies should be youth (under 30 years).

"We need to advance from full representation to more
participation," said Mr Raymond Ranker from the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America.

LWF Youth secretary Rev. Roger Schmidt affirmed that the
"pre-assembly youth conference has traditionally been both a
place of preparation and a unique opportunity of self-definition
for the Lutheran youth movement."

Schmidt pointed out that the youth desk continues to accompany
young people in the member churches through the three-year
training program "Engage: LWF Global Training for Young Leaders,"
which encourages further reflection on the implications of the
Eleventh Assembly theme for the LWF regions.

Over 100 youth delegates and stewards from 54 countries
participated in the pre-assembly youth conference near Toronto,
Ontario, Canada, just prior to the LWF Tenth Assembly "For the
Healing of the World" hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Canada on 21-31 July 2003 in Winnipeg.

The assembly is the highest decision-making body of the LWF,
meeting every six to seven years. At an assembly, delegates from
all LWF member churches take major decisions on the
organization's future work and direction. (512 words)

(Ms Tsiry Rakoto from the Malagasy Lutheran Church, an intern in
the LWF Office for Communication Services, wrote this article for
LWI.)

>*        *          *

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF
currently has 140 member churches in 79 countries all over the
world, with a total membership of over 68.5 million. The LWF acts
on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such
as ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information
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